Robdaddy

...or maybe there are some fare search tricks I don't know. Here's the situation: we (family of 5) want to spend 4 or 5 days in Paris, then fly Ryan Air to Shannon and spend a full week in Ireland. Preferred point of origin is either Charlotte or Raleigh-Durham, thouigh for a really good deal/schedule, we might suck it up and drive the 5 hours up to Dulles.

Checking last night, I found these fares, leaving US in late May, return around June 7th or 8th. For one adult, tax not included, CLT-CDG rt, $445. CLT-SNN rt, $461

Here's where my heart stopped: same carrier, CLT-CDG, then SNN CLT, $1,243! Like I said, I fugured open jaw carried a higher price, but triple??!!

Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas? Oh, hey, it just occurred to me that the RT fares were based on Mon-Thurs. travel days, the open jaw was for weekends each way...would that account for such a huge difference? Any help you can offer will be very much appreciated. My daughters will thank you even more than I will...

isabel

Keep checking, that must be a fluke. I've sometimes found open jaw to be even cheaper than in and out of the same city. Depends on where you are going. Other than occassionally a special deal in and out of one city, I've never found open jaw tickets to make any significant price difference. And weekends usually add about $25 each way. What search engines were you using?

elberko

I've had the same experience as isabel. Keep checking, prices change constantly.

andy

Robdaddy-

Call your TA and ask him/her to check a CONSOLIDATOR for these same routes....

If those do not come out any cheaper, then you will have to do a ROUNDTRIP in and out of CDG and do another tkt CDG to Shannon and back to CDG...

cinquanta

Read on Rick Steve's Open jaw should be only $100-200 more round trip. Keep looking it may be limited flights out of SNN are raising your price. God Luck!

kt_tak

Fiddle with your itinerary a bit and they'll come back down.

Seamus

If you got those fares online you might also try calling the airline. I've found that sometimes the online booking engines don't so as well as a live person in building an open-jaw fare. Sometimes changing flight dates by just a day or two can also lower the fare, and a live agent is better at this than the online service.

kismetchimera

Robdaddy, Persistence is the name of the game.. Keep checking the airline two or thee times a day... I have found a terrific deal with AA, open jaw ticket for June from SAT to Rome, Paris to SAT,for $771.00, taxes included, but i kept checking all the time...

Christina

I've never paid a single penny more for open jaw myself. I have booked several of those just normal ways through Travelocity or the carrier itself (like Air France).

You aren't comparing the same dates at all, that could well be the problem. Even if it weren't open jaw, it's possible the lowest price seats are sold out on one flight and that's why the open jaw is priced higher -- you might get the same thing if you compared the RT for those dates. Of course weekend will be higher, I think that adds on about $25-35 each way.

I would expect your open jaw flight to be priced about $450 based on your first two quotes if they are the right dates. However, I fly out of a major airport, so that might make a difference, but there is no general penalty for open jaw flights that I've ever encountered.

Andre

Robdaddy,

Where have you been getting your quotes? I would check the airline web sites directly (especially Aer Lingus in your case) and if that didn't yield good results, I'd call.

My hunch is that you're having trouble with your return journey from Ireland. I think far more airlines serve Dublin than Shannon. I would enter Dublin as my point of departure on the return leg and recheck the prices.

Hope this helps,
Andre

Statia

I have also found open jaw to be cheaper. Keep checking.

julies

I am curious how all of you find these cheap open jaw tickets. We usually have some flexibility, so my usual strategy is to use Travelocity's best fare finder as a base to locate the cheapest tickets and then to find the dates they are available. This, of course, is a round trip fare finder. How do you manipulate to find an open jaw itinerary hat is cheaper than something like this?

kismetchimera

Julies, I dont use Travelocity as a base to find low fare tickets ..I dont have a strategy, what I do is to keep checking various airlines or agencies in the internet during the day.. I was lucky that my hard work payed off and bought my tickets 10 days ago at a terrific price.

shaya

Just a stab in the dark - but is this Bob, as in Dede's husband?

LVSue

I just found a flight (CLT-CDG/SNN-CLT) from USAir 5/21 (dep 14:00) ret 6/3 (dep 13:15) for $586 RT. Maybe you need to go into the USAir site and play around with dates. (That was 2 weeks, Wed-Wed)

Christina

I just had a thought, although I'm not sure Robdaddy is reading any more -- you aren't by any chance booking two one-way trips? that would certainly cause that kind of a fare. however, a RT ticket, even if open-jaw, shouldn't be that big a difference in cost.

When I book open jaw, I usually know exactly where I want to go and when, my itinerary is not that flexible. I don't use Travelocity's automatic low fare finder, I go into the more detailed section (multiple destinations) and find prices myself based on the airline and times I want. I think when I do open-jaw, I always use the same airline for all segments (I think that makes a difference) and usually there aren't that many airline choices that even have my route as a possibility. So, I may go into those 1-2 airlines' sites and check them, also.

dgruzew

I fly open jaw more often than round trip. Here is the Deal: Open jaw tickets (if the same airline) will be the cost of each leg of a round trip to each city. So it a Round trip to CDG is 500 - expect to pay 250 for that half then the half of the round trip for the city your will be leaving from. Make sure you stay a saturday night, other wise fare are double,triple,or more. I notice that sometimes one city will have really good fare when another does not. For example: I was trying to get a fare to CDG and out of rome. Chicago to Paris - RT was 500. Chicago to Rome round trip was 1000. Open jaw 750 !! this really happend, it was cheaper to fly open jaw beacuse the paris leg was so cheap. Just keep looking - MAKE SURE YOU FLY THE SAME AIRLINE FOR BOTH LEGS. other wise this won't work. Check Travelocity, Expedia, orbitz. Also try consolidators : www.airsaver.com for one

julie_Colorado

We do this type of ticket multiple times each year. And it is always the same price or very slightly higher than the roundtrip. As others have said, I always call a few airlines. And if I don't like the answer, I call right back. It's amazing - but some airline ticket agents really work for you, and others just throw out the first price they find. I have saved lots of money with a simple call back.

steve

We have also generally seen the same or lower prices on open Jaws.

Just check US Airways for May 14 with a return on the 28th

Going to CDG first was $900
Going to SNN first was $634

Juggle the dates and see what you come up with.

Also, checked Dublin and it was roughly the same price and $150 cheaper to arrive there and leave CDG